UK minister - ‘Hire young Brits over immigrants’

Matthew Hancock made the remarks on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Picture: PA

GAVIN CORDON

COMPANIES have a “social duty” to employ young British workers rather than better-qualified immigrants, a UK Government minister has said.

Conservative Business Minister Matthew Hancock said firms have a responsibility to ensure young people in the communities where they are based are given the opportunity to get a job and get on in life.

He said employers should be prepared to invest in training British staff rather than simply looking for “pure profit”.

“As the amount of jobs in the economy grows - we saw the good growth figures yesterday - everybody should be given the chance to get on in life and get one,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“During the last boom there was a lot of recruitment from abroad and, in fact, youth unemployment went up, even during the boom.

“This is about a change of culture. I’m arguing that it is companies’ social responsibility, it is their social duty, to look at employing locally first.

“That may mean that they have to do more training. It may mean more training in hard skills, in specific skills. Or it may mean training in the wherewithal, the character you need in order to hold down a job.

“The responsibility of employers is to the community that they live in as well as to pure profit.”

His intervention comes amid fears among Tory MPs of a new influx of immigrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria when restrictions on their employment are lifted next year.

The Conservatives are under pressure from Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party, which has been pressing for tighter controls.

Mr Hancock insisted that firms which were prepared to invest in British staff would ultimately reap the benefits.

“Those who put the effort in have ended up with a more motivated employee who is more connected to their company. If you, as the company, put something in, then you get somebody with a great attachment to you in return,” he said.

He rejected comparisons to Gordon Brown’s controversial “British jobs for British workers” campaign under the last Labour government.

“That was about a job creation scheme and also making this a law and mandatory. This is about changing culture,” he said.

“I see immigration and education reform and welfare reform as very much integrated to make sure that everybody in Britain has the chance to get on. That is what this is all about.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.